WorldCom1

Recent years have proven most unethical for the Business industry; as in the case study of WorldCom, this is a classic example of Moral and Ethical Values gone wrong. WorldCom once known as the Elephant in the Room of the Communications world had paved the path to being the communication provider of the world only to be dethroned by bad business practices. In this paper we will discuss the unethical behavior of Bernie Ebbers and the immoral decisions that led to the bankruptcy, and a personal net worth as a negative nine-digit number of WorldCom. Ethical Problems Bernie Maddof, Jeff Skilling, just to name a few have all made unethical decisions in the past few years that have contributed to demise of corporations, and ruined lives of many of innocent people. Bernie Ebbers started off as a stand up guy one that was hard not to like, but throughout his tenure as CEO of WorldCom he made poor decision that would in turn be the cause of his failure and later be known as the largest bankruptcy in American history(www.scu.edu). Ethical Problems raised in the WorldCom case, were unethical loans, accounting chicanery, passive board of directors, greed, hostile work environment, and lack of integrity. Ebbers was the type of leader that made a mockery of ethics he was once quoted as saying The people who got promotions were not the ones who told the truth, but people who claimed credit for things they didnt do, twisted reality and promised things without worrying about whether they could deliver.(Sweeney, 2003) This type of behavior caused a hostile work environment where employees were forced to take on the mentality only the strong survive this created a culture where employees were forced to act unethically. This toxic leadership would eventually

WorldCom2

The decision making process Deontological ethics is known as the ethical theories that place special emphasis on the relationship between duty and the morality of human actions (www.britannica.com). Using deontological ethics to critically evaluate WorldComs ethical problems there are two aspects where deontology was in effect. Bernie Ebbers had a duty and a moral obligation to his customers, and to the employees of WorldCom to make the right business decisions and to keep their best interest in mind. Ebbers failed to uphold his obligations by taken part in unethical loans; by adjusting the accounting books so that it would appear that profits were increasing, and creating a hostile work environment where the employees felt the only way to get ahead was to act immorally. Now when we compare deontological ethics to the actions that Cynthia Cooper took we explore deontology from a different aspect. Cooper despite the consequences knew that it was her moral obligation to expose the truth no matter the cost. Now one may argue that it was Coopers duty to be loyal to her employees, but at the same time she had a moral obligation to the cooperation and to the customers to expose the fact that they are accounting irregularities that were intended to deceive investors. When we compare both situations we see that Ebbers acted immorally to benefit himself, whereas Cooper actions were based off the fact